“The condition of Lake Accotink today is largely due to rapid development within the Accotink Creek watershed in the mid-20th century, which resulted in increased stormwater runoff that eroded streams and sent large amounts of sediment into the U.S. The report puts the blame for worsening lake conditions on development and climate change. A smaller, offline lake could not be constructed using lake sediments, would require large quantities of suitable material to be trucked in through neighborhoods, and, although feasible, poses potentially significant risk for long-term safety and maintenance.Lake Accotink would need to be dredged again every five years in order to keep up with the sediment accumulation, requiring a year of work and 15,000 truck trips for each recurring dredge.Costs to complete the dredging work have gone up dramatically since the pandemic began.Free disposal of dredged spoils options are not available today as they were for previous dredge events.Hauling of the increased sediment amount would require 50,000 truck trips through neighborhood and area roads.Southern Drive: would require heavy truck access through residential neighborhoods.Wakefield Park Maintenance Facility: would require clearing 7 acres of forested wetlands and upland forest to process spoils.Only two of the numerous sites evaluated for sediment processing are considered technically feasible:.The amount of sediment to be processed requires a site with large capacity.43 percent more sediment than originally estimated will need to be removed in the base dredge.Other findings in the analysis from the report: The 55-acre lake sits within a 482-acre park in the Springfield area. In addition, Fairfax County officials said the “significant community and environmental impacts” are “far greater than anticipated.”īottom line: It simply isn’t feasible to dredge Lake Accotink. And the cost of maintenance dredging for the first 20 years comes to another $300 million. Fairfax County’s beloved Lake Accotink might not be a lake in the future.Īccording to a report released in February, the initial Lake Accotink dredge cost estimate of $30 million in 2018 ballooned to $95 million in a more recent analysis.
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